Field of the Present Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a cloth with independent gas cells and methods of fabricating the cloth. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a cloth with independent gas cells and methods of fabricating the cloth wherein the cloth with independent gas cells may be formed by weaving a gas cell warp and a general fabric weft with each other such that the area of the cloth can be increased as desired, and gaps may be defined in the woven fabric to enable air permeability, and the manufacturing cost of the gas cell fabric may be reduced because there is no need to enlarge a roller or a press to make the gas cell warp.
The present disclosure relates to a cloth including a gas sheet having multiple individual gas cells formed therein. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a cloth including a gas sheet having multiple individual gas cells formed therein, each cell having substantially a sphere shape, each cell having a carbonic acid gas or helium gas filled therein, wherein each cell may be ruptured or maintained, if desired, in use, wherein the present cloth may be employed for firefighter clothes or lifesaving clothes.
Discussion of the Related Art
The textile industry, which had been treated as a fading industry in the past, has recently emerged as a new high-value-added industry with the development of various functional fabrics using state-of-the-art technology.
Functional fabrics may be produced by weaving new functional yarns, by coating new functional materials on the surface of conventional fabrics, or by combining various yarns to make new structure fabrics. For example, the functional fabrics may have improvement in breathable, sweat-releasing, heat-insulating, hygroscopic, antimicrobial, heat-insulating, abrasion-resistant, and soft-touch properties. Further, the functional fabrics may shield electromagnetic waves and static electricity or may harvest energy during action.
As one of such functional fabrics, the present applicant has developed a cloth having a gas cell filled with a gas such as carbon dioxide or helium in the cell. The gas sheet having such a plurality of independent gas cells exhibits an excellent effect that cannot be expected with a porous polyurethane sheet constituting the inner fabric of a waterproof protective fire-fighting cloth with an air cell as disclosed in Korean Patent No. 10-0964968.
That is, although the porous polyurethane sheet can improve the heat insulating performance to some extent through the air contained in the inner air bubbles, the air in the air bubbles can escape at any time. Thus, the expected effect may not always achieved under any circumstances. Further, it is also difficult to obtain sufficient shock-buffering effect.
However, in the cloth as disclosed in the previously-filed patent application of the present applicant, since a plurality of gas cells are sealed in a gas sheet having a sufficient tensile strength, the filled gas does not leak out normally and can exhibit stable performance. In addition, the cloth is very suitable to be used in a fire extinguisher cloth which requires insulation and cooling because the gas cell may be ruptured at a specific high temperature (for example, above 100° C.) and the gas may leak out to function as a coolant. Further, the cloth may be used as a life jacket requiring buoyancy because the filled gas may allow the buoyancy.
As described above, the gas sheet in which a plurality of independent gas cells are formed has an advantage in producing a fabric having properties suited to functions for a fire-fighting suit or a life-saving clothing. However, there is a certain difficulty in manufacturing a gas sheet having a desired area.
That is, when manufacturing the gas sheet, a pair of suction rollers in which a plurality of gas cell forming grooves are formed, or a pressing machine operating up and down are provided in an airtight space. Then, gas is sprayed upstream a point where the gas sheets are combined, to fill the gas between the gas sheets. Then, the gas sheets are laminated into a layer using the rollers or pressing machine. Thus, the gas is filled in a gas cell formed in the shape of the gas cell forming groove. Accordingly, there was a limitation that the size of the gas sheet corresponds to the size the suction roller or the press.
In addition, since the gas sheet must be made of a non-breathable material so as to seal the gas, it is very difficult to discharge the sweat by using the gas sheet fabric.
The firefighter should wear heat-proof clothes to protect his body from an extremely hot temperature. Further, a lifeguard for saving a person in water should wear water-proof clothes to prevent the water from penetrating into the clothes. For example, the firefighter clothes may include an outshell, a middle layer, an inshell, and a felt pursuant to a special firefighter clothes standard specification.
The outshell should be made entirely of a woven textile of PBI (polybenzimidazole) based fibers, PBO (Polybenz oxazole) based fibers, or equivalent higher-graded fibers. In an alternative, the outshell should be made partially (at least 30%) of a woven textile of PBI (polybenzimidazole) based fibers, PBO (Polybenz oxazole) based fibers, or equivalent or higher-graded fibers, and the remaining portion may be made of aramid-based fibers or equivalent higher-graded fibers. The texture type of the outshell should be a rip-stop. Further, the middle layer, inshell, and felt should have good heat-resistance and water-proof properties. The inshell should be made of aramid-based fibers or equivalent higher-graded fibers to be soft and have a good sweat-absorption. When the felt is attached to the middle layer or inshell, the felt should be made of the same material as that of the middle layer or inshell.
This firefighter clothes with the water-proof and heat-resistance should have a standard specification in terms of a heat-resistance, a weight, an inshell cleaning time, a textile cost, etc. Currently, a domestic standard or an international NFPA standard for the firefighter clothes has details about the specification thereof.
The conventional firefighter clothes may have a layer configuration including the outshell, middle layer, inshell and felt, thereby to allow the heat-resistance performance in some degree. However, the heat-resistance performance exhibited by the conventional firefighter clothes may fall short of a heat-resistance performance specified by the NFPA standard. This may lead to a fire-damage of the firefighter in the event of fire. When using the water-proof stack configuration including the inshell/felt/water-proof textile layer, the water-proof performance thereof may not be good, leading to uncomfortable wearing feeling and, thus, low efficient activity of the wearer. Further, since the felt is similar to cotton, the felt may cause a drying time after washing the firefighter clothes to be at least three days.
In order to solve the above problems, Korean patent number 10-0964968 tilted as “inner cloth having air cells for firefighter clothes and firefighter clothes including the same” is disclosed. In this document, the inner cloth includes a stack of a heat-resistant felt, a porous polyurethane sheet having multiple air cells formed therein, each air cell containing bubbles, and an aramid cloth made of heat-resistant aromatic polyamide-based fibers in this order. However, the air cells may have poor cushioning ability, and may have a lower heat-resistance because they do not contain a gas with good cooling performance.
Further, the conventional lifesaving clothes may have a thick synthetic resin filled therein, leading to uncomfortable wearing feeling and lowered air content. Thus, the conventional lifesaving clothes may have a poor floating performance. Further, the conventional lifesaving clothes may not be easily flexible, leading to a lowered activity freedom of the lifeguard.
Prior art documents may be as follows: Korean patent number 10-0654365, Korean patent number 10-0964968, Korean patent application laid-open number 10-2012-0058837, and Korean patent number 10-0549545.
This “Discussion of the Background” section is provided for background information only. The statements in this “Discussion of the Background” are not an admission that the subject matter disclosed in this “Discussion of the Background” section constitutes prior art to the present disclosure, and no part of this “Discussion of the Background” section may be used as an admission that any part of this application, including this “Discussion of the Background” section, constitutes prior art to the present disclosure.